No activity in life insurance is of higher importance than that leading to settlement of claims. It is the ultimate moment of truth in the contract of insurance between a policyholder who undertakes to pay premium regularly and the insurer who commits to pay a certain amount of money to the claimant on his survival up to the stipulated term, or to the nominees or the legal heirs if, unfortunately, the policyholder dies before the expiry of the term.

Every life insurance company adopts its own philosophy regarding handling of claims and tries to faithfully discharge its responsibility towards the customers or their dependents.

In practice, however, the companies widely differ in their approach to this important task. Over a period of time, complacency sets in down the line. Varying degree of passion to deal with the matter with empathy often determines the quality of claim settlement operations. It is necessary that the claims policy of any company is designed to render prompt, courteous and satisfactory service to customers without exception, whatever be the circumstances.

The most critical issue in handling any job in a structured organisation is procedure. It is expected to facilitate the end result within a time-frame while safeguarding the interest of the customers as well as of the company. All procedures are to be initiated or adopted by the people who are assigned the task of fulfilling corporate objectives.

The people who hold the key to a successful transaction have to be conscientious enough to understand that claim settlement is the very purpose of the existence of a life insurance company in the society. The procedure of claim settlement is not just data processing, but an activity that culminates in wiping tears from the eyes of those who have just lost their most loved one. Death claim cases are, therefore, dealt with something more than just an efficient procedure.

The beneficiary is concerned not with the efficiency with which procedures are followed by concerned employees, but with the effectiveness of a procedure that gives him or her prompt material result. In claims settlement activity ,procrastination by citing procedural issue is very common, but I think that allowing such stereotyped work style could prove counter-productive in the business of extending financial support and protection when it is needed the most.

Acquiring customers through aggressive sales strategies and brand-building exercise is exciting; but if a company really wants to influence